Chicago’s big bird. will play their first show ever on Friday, October 14th at the Gman Tavern. The event will also serve as a release party for their Call / Repeat EP, which will be available that evening on lathe cut clear vinyl. The band’s lineup consists of singer/guitarist Jason S. Thompson, (The Sky We Scrape, Little Teeth, Inspector Owl) guitarist Jeff Ulbrich, (From Beyond These Walls) bassist Alex Palermo, (Royal Dog, Typesetter) and drummer Matt Gonzalez, (Royal Dog, Typesetter).
When asked about how they formed, Thompson explained “We got together in January of this year. Alex and I have been friends through previous bands playing together over the past decade, and always tossed around the idea of doing a band or musical project together at some point in the future.” He continued, “I had been living in Munich, Germany for about five years and when I shared that I’d be moving back to Chicago we started talking about making some noise together. We kicked around a few different ideas and decided to lean into some heavier sounds since that’s something we both love, but haven’t really played actively in years. We got together with Matt, who also plays in Typesetter with Alex, and Jeff, who is a long-time friend of Alex. All three of them are super-talented and it all jelled immediately and has been a lot of fun.”
Call / Repeat was recorded at the band’s practice space, with Thompson handling engineering duties for the first time. He received guidance from Chuck Macak, who also mixed the EP, while Alan Douches mastered it. The EP’s final song, “Double Hockey Sticks”, was initially demoed by Thompson while he was still living in Munich. When describing how the song evolved, he said “Once I brought the song to the others in big bird. it took a more nuanced shape and gained a lot more life and texture. The bridge section specifically is something that we worked on for a while to try and make it really special. During the recording process, I think I recorded 15 or 20 different vocal layers that built throughout the section into a weird and creepy choir, but we ended up scaling it back and only have a few voices in there. It’s definitely one of my favorites to play together.”
Take a listen to “Double Hockey Sticks” below and check out the entire EP here. Tickets for the upcoming show at Gman, which also features Still Alive and Intolerable Swill, can be found here.
